By the time I reached Year 11, I had decided that English was the subject for me. 

This was partly the effect of having English teachers who inspired me, and partly

because I really enjoyed the Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens I had to

study for the exams.  Before O level, however, my ambitions were to be a classicist. 

I loved Latin and Greek, and have always been glad I was immersed in these languages

at an early age.  Although I dropped Greek after O level, I carried on with Latin

both in the sixth form and as part of my English course at university. 

 

I was immensely lucky to have teachers at school for whom the reading of literature

was an essential part of life.  From them I absorbed a love for a very

wide range of literature, in particular Shakespeare and his contemporaries. 

I will always remember those lessons in which we read Spenser’s Faerie Queene,

not an easy text, but a joy when taught by a real enthusiast.

 

I went to St John's College, Oxford, to read English and again was fortunate

in my teachers.  My English tutors were John Carey (who became Merton

Professor of English during my final year) and Tom Shippey (who later became

a Professor at Leeds and in the USA).  The course at at that time included

just about everything from Anglo-Saxon literature right up to the Second World

War.  There was usually just one week allowed for the study of each major author

(with the exception of Shakespeare – who had a whole term to himself!), so

the pace was fairly unrelenting.  High School boys who find it hard to read a

few chapters for a week’s homework ought to try an eight-week term which

includes the study of Dickens, George Eliot, Trollope, Hardy, Tennyson,

Browning and the Brontë sisters, whilst at the same time learning Anglo-Saxon

from scratch before beginning to study Beowulf in the original language.

 

After Oxford I taught at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, for three

years before coming to Nottingham High School in 1980.  During the last

quarter of a century I have been extremely fortunate, having had the

opportunity to pursue all my interests.  I have been in charge of the

school library since 1987, and have had the chance to help redesign and

refurbish it twice during that time.  As someone who loves books, I cannot

think of a better job.  I have also run the Arts Society for at

least the last ten years, organising about twenty-five events each year. 

Since January 2005 I have been Head of English and am looking forward to

all the opportunities this will give me for promoting the subject further.

 

Music is my other passion, and since 1994 I have reviewed  classical concerts

for the Nottingham Evening Post.  I enjoy both the music and the discipline

of having to meet very tight deadlines – sometimes just an hour or so after the

concert has finished.  Altogether, I have been to an unusually large number

of cultural events over the years: by my reckoning, nearly 700 since 1994. 

Although I sometimes complain if I have to go out in the rain on a windy  Saturday

night in January to sit in a draughty church listening to a local choral society,

I also realise that both Nottingham and the High School have given me much to be

thankful for over many years.

 

William Ruff